Women’s pension campaign group WASPI bombards Government department with letters

By David Parker

Published: 11:46, 25 July 2016

Trish McGregor left and Linda Cuthbertson post their letters to the DWP.

A campaign group plans to bombard the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) with letters of complaint after accusing it of maladministration over pension changes.

Members of Women Against State Pension Inequality (WASPI), including the Lincolnshire and Rutland branch, have embarked on a mass-mail campaign in a bid to see their complaints taken to the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

Waspi demonstration outside Westminster, London

They are demanding compensation for women born on or after April 6, 1951, whose pensions will be hit by the Government’s alterations to the state pension age. They will say in their letters that the DWP is ‘guilty of maladministration in the way the changes have been introduced’.

A posting on the WASPI website says: “We want to cause such a high volume that it will further compel the Government to look in earnest at making remedy for the ‘grotesque disadvantage’ and financial loss we have suffered.”

Trish McGregor, 62, from Ancaster, is campaign organiser for the Grantham area. She said: “Everyone is sending their own letters to make a strong point.”

The mass-mailing follows a demonstration outside Westminster last month. Protesters, including Trish, gathered at Grantham railway station on June 29 and travelled by train to London.

Waspi members gather at Grantham railway station ahead of demonstration outside Westminster, London

Trish joined WASPI when she realised that her pension age had risen from 60 to 62 then 65-and-a-half, a move by the Government which she called ‘selfish and unjust’.

She said: “It’s not like we’re a bunch of old women moaning. We’ve worked for our pensions.”

Trish added: “The Government did not inform me they had put my pension age up. I did not find out until I requested a pension forecast. My retirement age was raised to 62, then to 65-and-a-half.

“Even now there are many ladies who are unaware their pension age has been increased.”